Blog

4 Nearly Impossible-to-Fill Tech Hires and How to Find Them

by John A. Mussatto on August 31, 2015

Have you ever encountered an IT position that you just cannot fill? No matter how extensively you search the local talent pool, no viable candidates turn up. Meanwhile, a variety of other positions have been opened and filled with minimal effort. It is not a stretch to say that you are at your wit’s end.

This story is not so out of the ordinary. We have found that there are not just some hard to fill IT jobs, but some that are nearly impossible-to-fill with conventional methods. For a business to overcome hiring hurdles, managers will need to pursue alternatives to the exhausted tactics that are stunting their growth, productivity, and stream of revenue.

4 IT Positions Employers Can Rarely Find

With the IT market evolving as quickly as it does, there is bound to be a lag in qualified talent until the skills in question become more abundant. However, some positions are evolving so quickly that by the time the majority of the workforce “catches up,” their skills are already obsolete.

Four types of IT positions in particular regularly break through existing barriers and leave the majority of IT professionals scrambling to once again close the gap.

Cybersecurity Professionals: It is little surprise that cybersecurity is a field where formerly cutting-edge techniques have a dismal shelf life. Cybersecurity professionals wage a war of wits with hackers in the ongoing struggle to keep network, system, and database security unbreakable. A Rand Corporation study found the demand for cybersecurity far surpasses the current supply. Though more high level university programs are being created, true cybersecurity innovators will always need field experience, which takes time.

DevOps: As a recent addition to the IT ecosystem, DevOps positions are still too new for any major portion of the tech community to have mastery of its tools and expectations. For example, the number of job postings for IT professionals with experience in Chef and Puppet configuration management tools has increased 67% and 63%, respectively, between May 2014 and May 2015. Any talent gap created by a drastic increase in demand logically takes time to close.

UX and Mobile Development: The mobile development industry is evolving so quickly. Traditional websites are being revised to conform to mobile UX layouts. Native iOS and Android app developers have become increasingly popular for the enterprise business sector. Top talent is being gathered up like gangbusters. In fact, Gartner predicts that by the end of 2017, the demand for mobile app developers will grow at least five times faster than the supply can keep up.

Cloud Computing: In the United States, there are currently 3.9 million jobs related to cloud computing and the industry is only expanding. Though it isn’t as esoteric of a skill set as it once one, great difficulty still exists for businesses attempting to hire cloud computing professionals. WANTED Analytics places cloud computing at a difficulty level of 79 out of 100 on their Hiring Scale (with higher scores signifying more hard to fill IT jobs).

Overcoming the Impossible Hire

Part of the extreme difficulty in filling these and other highly sought after IT positions comes from repeating ineffective tactics. Though persistence with a difficult hire is critical, it would be nothing without the occasional creative approach. That’s why when job boards fail, these methods should be seriously considered.

Finding Visa Holders: Large portions of the IT community have been pushing federal regulators to dissolve the restrictions on H1B visa holders. They claim the caps hurt economic growth and prevents the U.S. from attracting the “greatest minds” the world has to offer. Whether that’s true or not, other alternatives to the H1B visa exist.

TN1 visa holders are easier to bring into the country from Canada, can fill short-term contract positions, and take only a fraction of the time an H1B visa holder would to bring aboard. Though not doable for direct hire positions, TN1 visa holders are an ideal match for niche, one-time projects.

Hiring for a Cultural Fit: A mental shift in prevailing hiring methods has long impeded the IT market. Many begin their talent search with the assumption that every skill they desire can come pre-packaged in the same person. Yet when they fail to find their impossible candidate, they plow onward with the same approach.

Often, a long-open position can be filled by accepting a smart, slightly more junior candidate who is otherwise an excellent cultural fit. Whether hiring someone totally new or training an existing employee to take the role (and finding someone for his or her easier to fill spot), this tactic can allow companies to progress beyond a state of hiring inertia.

Proactively Recruit Top Talent: Instead of waiting for qualified professionals to come to you, successful companies are reaching out to them. Often, that requires having a dedicated staff of recruiters who can take the time to funnel qualified candidates into open positions. Though this is one of the most effective solutions, it is often costly and requires ample and regular training to ensure success.

Want to speed up the hiring process for those hard to fill IT jobs even further? Reach out to Resource 1 today. We have access to hundreds of qualified candidates in disciplines like Cybersecurity, UX/Mobile Development, DevOps, Cloud Computing, and many others. Moreover, we have the experience and means to source candidates using creative and unexpected solutions. Your extensive search will quickly come to an end when you partner with us.